National grid records 8,706MW unused energy in 7 days

The national grid recorded 8,706.7 megawatts (MW) of electricity within seven days in the early period of April, a report by the Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED) has shown.

In a statement on Sunday, the Executive Director, Research and Advocacy for ANED, Barr. Sunday Oduntan, said the figure was for un-utilised energy between 2nd and 8th of April 2022, noting that 11 Distribution Companies (DisCos) recorded only 668MW of the unutilised power.

He dismissed reports that the DisCos rejected 2,495.3MW during the one-week period. Citing a review of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN)’s System Operator (SO)’s report, Oduntan said besides the 668MW the DisCos did not use, 8,038.70MW was un-utilised with faults from the Generation Companies (GenCos).

Oduntan said: “A further review of the report, for the same period, would indicate that 8,038.70MW was unutilised or constrained due to gas supply limitations (7,443MW) and water management issues (595.70 MW).”

The association also said prior to the period, there had been low energy supply nationwide due to various factors including gas constraint. The Minister of Power, Engr. Abubakar Aliyu, had earlier explained the efforts to tackle the challenges, which ANED said, had constrained the energy supplied to the distribution end of the power sector value chain.

ANED also said according to the SO report, the DisCos nominated 31,825.88MW for the seven days but received 22,188.54MW or 70% of that.

Thus, the DisCos did not receive the full value of their nomination. For the same period, only 668 MW of energy was unutilised by the DisCos.”

ANED said it remained committed to continually improving on electricity supply services based on the energy that is made available to them on the grid on a daily basis.